The notion of a 'standard' variety of English has been the subject of a considerable body of research. Studies have tended to focus on the standard features of British and American English. However, more recently interest has turned to the other varieties of English that have developed around the world and the ways in which these have also been standardised. This volume provides the first book-length exploration of 'standard Englishes', with chapters on areas as diverse as Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. This is a timely and important topic, edited by a well-known scholar in the field, with contributions by the leading experts on each major variety of English discussed. The book presents in full the criteria for defining a standard variety, and each chapter compares standards in both spoken and written English and explores the notion of register within standard varieties.
• Includes a comprehensive timeline for the developments of varieties of English and a set of maps for the anglophone world • Provides historical information on English in the late modern period (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) • Both large and small countries are discussed, for instance the United States, England, South Africa and Australia alongside Ireland, Malta and the island nations of the South Pacific
Contents
1. Standard English and standards of English Raymond Hickey; 2. The codification of English in England Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade; 3. An evolving standard British English pronunciation model Clive Upton; 4. Standard English in Scotland John Corbett and Jane Stuart-Smith; 5. Standard Irish English Raymond Hickey; 6. Standards of English in Malta and the Channel Islands Manfred Krug and Anna Rosen; 7. The idea of Standard American English William A. Kretzschmar, Jr and Charles F. Meyer; 8. Standard Canadian English Charles Boberg; 9. Standards of English in the Caribbean Hubert Devonish and Ewart A. C. Thomas; 10. Standard South African English Sean Bowerman; 11. Standards of English in West Africa Ulrike Gut; 12. Standards of English in East Africa Josef Schmied; 13. Standards of English in South Asia Claudia Lange; 14. Standards of English in South-East Asia Lisa Lim; 15. Standard Australian English Felicity Cox and Sallyanne Palethorpe; 16. Standard New Zealand English Elizabeth Gordon; 17. Acrolectal English in the South Pacific Carolin Biewer; 18. Varieties resistant to standardisation Daniel Schreier.
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